Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings announced it was donating $10 million to six coastal communities in Alaska. And on Thursday the Miami-based cruise giant confirmed that Skagway’s share would be $2 million.
Senior Vice President for NCL Holdings Steve Moeller told KHNS why the publicly traded cruise line is writing checks to port communities.
“We want to make sure that Skagway is still there when we come back, whether it’ll be this year, and next year, whenever it is, we want to make sure that everybody’s still there. You know, Skagway is very critical to us.”
He said it’s not new for NCL Holdings to invest in communities that host its cruise lines and have been hit by natural disasters.
“You know, we’ve done this before in Puerto Rico when they were hit hard with Hurricane Maria, we gave a $2 million donation to the Bahamas when there was devastation after Hurricane Dorian because those are our partners, you know, they’re our neighbors,” said Moeller.
According to Moeller, the cruise company has been burning through cash during the pandemic just to keep their fleet moored. But the company is in a strong financial position because of moves they made to increase capital.
The company will also be donating $2 million each to Ketchikan and Juneau and Hoonah; Seward and Sitka would each receive $1 million.
“We came up with that those top six destinations, just based on pure volume of calls and passenger throughput,” said Moeller.
Once the Municipality of Skagway gives the go-ahead, Moeller said his company will transfer the $2 million to the municipality’s bank account. After that, it’s up to the civic leaders to distribute those funds. Unlike the cruise passenger head tax, there are no strings attached to how the money can be spent.
…but no donation to the town next door that also sees your ships? … the one that had landslides that killed people and half of the town evacuated looking for a place to live? No worries, people are sending food carts through the mail…. thanks for ur generosity! :p